


When You Know

by onceuponanovel



Series: Capitol Offense [3]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Canon Divergence, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, District 12, F/M, Fluff with a little Angst, Healing, Inspired by The Hunger Games, Just a OS, Mockingjay, Once Upon a Time (TV) References, One Shot, Panem, Post-Rebellion Story, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Epilogue Mockingjay, Rumitch, capitol offense series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 01:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6883879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceuponanovel/pseuds/onceuponanovel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in between Capitol Offense and Capitol Justice. Haymitch has escorted Katniss home and waits for the rest to follow. In Peeta's and Ruby's absence he finds himself turning to alcohol again. But maybe he finally has a reason to be sober again.</p><p>(and I'm trying to work on some artwork for it)</p>
            </blockquote>





	When You Know

6 months post Rebellion

District 12

 

Haymitch sat alone of Katniss’ sitting room, the room darkened by the shades pulled and the curtains closed hoping sleep would come. He had coaxed the girl into falling asleep on the sofa, but when she reached for the bottle in his hand he refused her. It was one thing to have him go down the path to self-destruction again, but he wouldn’t see the girl on fire’s flame extinguished.

He went back and forth observing her as she fidgeted in her restless slumber and staring up at the cracked ceiling. It wasn’t there before the holocaust of his home. Rubble still remained. Half of Victor’s Village was wiped off the map and the road to reconstruction would be a long and draining one. He was too old and too worn out, some would say as broken as the District he called home. The bottle of white liquor to his right was doing some to help the process. Half of it already gone and there certainly wouldn’t be a drop left.

The bottle was about to touch his lips once more when a soft knock on the door stopped him. He set it down on the table beside him with a thud and got up from the uncomfortable piece of crap that Katniss’ mother chose to furnish this place and went for the door nearly wrenching off the knob in a huff about to snarl out a ‘what the hell do you want’ when he saw the only other person who could illicit some kind of kindness out of him.

“Is that how greet an old friend?” Ruby grumbled mocking his own voice. He stepped aside for her to enter and naturally her eyes went to the half empty bottle. With a stern look she raised a brow. “Nu-uh,” she shook her head. “You promised me.”

“I say a lot of things I don’t mean, sweetheart…”

She cut him off by swatting him and not playfully, there was some force behind her swing, “No!” her voice was low. “You’re not going to do this. You deserve better. If need be me and the kids will do a thorough sweep of your house.”

“I don’t get you, red,” he mumbled, his eyes caught a glimpse of Peeta exiting his home and strolling across the road towards Katniss home. He held up his hand to make the boy pause. “I just got her to sleep, whatever you do, don’t undo what I’ve done.”

“Good to see you too, Haymitch,” Peeta smirked, as usual let Haymitch’s comments roll off him. “I’ll watch after her. It’s what we do.”

His eyes drifted between the girl on fire and the boy with the bread and reluctantly left Peeta in charge. And with Ruby by his side, he walked her towards his home neighboring Katniss’. After all the Capitol did to him, he shouldn’t wish to stay, but where else was he to go? Much like the kids, he had no family, no friends, and those he did have barely tolerated him and the feeling was mutual. However it was home and he was a creature of habit. Like it or not Victor’s Village was home.

As he stepped through the front door, a carbon copy layout of both Katniss and Peeta’s spoils of their victory, he could count on his hand how many times he came here in a week. Just to clean up, change and leave to keep an eye on Katniss who spent her days mourning her sister and fighting off the unwanted terrors of more than just both her Hunger Games.

Ruby swiped a finger over the side table in the foyer and wrinkled her nose, “Don’t clean much, do you?”

The house hadn’t been touched since Hazel Hawthorne did her job to spruce up the place. “If you don’t like it there’s always the charred huts in the Seam.”

 “There’s no need to be rude,” she dropped her luggage by the stairs and removed her jacket draping it over the banister. “Okay,” she folded her arms across her chest. “Where is it?”

He knew exactly what she was talking about but wasn’t about to aid her in this mission.

“Fine, be that way,” she grabbed her bag and stormed up the stairs. “But I will find it,” she called out as she reached the second floor,

“Yeah, yeah,” he waved her off and entered the sitting room taking a seat in his old chair, the same one his mother had insisted he get. Though she never got a chance to enjoy it. Neither did August and neither did he. Listening to her select one of the empty rooms, that hadn’t been in use since after his Quell, the noise was…oddly nice.

 

* * *

 

Within a week’s time, Ruby did the impossible and managed to turn the house upside down turning this seventy plus year old house into a home. After twenty-five years of living…no what he did he didn’t consider living, more like dwelling, surviving, prevailing…then the kids barged into his life…then, well, then somehow Ruby entered his life.

She had free reign, so much so that when she caught him with the white liquor, daring to snatch it right out of his and if he didn’t like her so much he’d want to kill her.

She took the bottle to the kitchen and dumped it down the sink, “I am not going to sit and watch you do this to yourself…”

“Why the hell do you care?” he ranted throwing his hands up in the air.

“Well I _do_ care!” her tone was softer and she tossed the empty bottle like tossing a ball through a basketball hoop. Her eyes remained fixed on his. “And I’m not going to stop caring. I know what you did in District Thirteen, the extra deal you made, Haymitch…because of _me_.” She pointed to herself before dropping her hand to her side. “You’ve done everything to shield me and this,” she gestures to the spic and span kitchen. “…you don’t think you deserve this, but you do.”

He has to tear himself away from her gaze, the way her pale blue eyes sparkle gets him almost hypnotized at times. He is so caught up in what she just said that he doesn’t realize that she’s taken his hand in hers. He yanks it away from her.

“What’re you doing now?” he scrunches up his face in disgust to throw her off. But what he felt, a jolt of electricity when she touched him, he felt it in Thirteen, once in the Capitol leading up to the Snow’s execution, and now…he hadn’t felt this was, he wasn’t sure how to handle it either. With the kids, well, that was different. But being with Ruby was like unchartered waters and she a lifeline. “I don’t get you, red…what’s with the touchy feely shit…” he took a step back.

She tilts her head to the side and he half expected her to wear a matching scowl, but instead her expression is one of humor. “You don’t fool me, Haymitch.”

 _Aw, hell_ , he thought. _Why did she have to say his name…and like that too._ With a silky tone that and her half smile. Did she really know how this affected him?

She took his hand again and refused to let him pull away. Her soft palm inside his rough hand was…well it was something, but he couldn’t quite describe it. “C’mon,” she pulled him to the back door.

“Now what?” he grumbled following her outside, the fresh air did feel nice.

“Now we explore,” she tilted her head with a mischievous smile. “You know you promised to show me around…as I recall…”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “I know what I said.”

When she was still healing in the hospital ward of District Thirteen, every day, well twice a day if he could get away with it, would stop in and visit for an hour. Then that hour led to two hours until Prim would snicker as he left…now he missed hearing the girl’s cackling…or even tormenting him with bringing the mangy feline she toted everywhere.

He shook off the melancholy’s unpleasantness and observed Ruby taking in the area pointing out the variety of foliage but he couldn’t forget that she was still holding onto his hand with a good grip. He could get away if he wanted, but truth be told he liked it too much to let go.

Slowly they came upon the lake, the one he’d taken August to a few times when the Peacekeepers weren’t watching. When the few times the boundary line wasn’t electrified for maintenance…and ended up with them trapped outside the border of District 12 for a night, August frantic to get back to Mom and him trying to calm his brother.

He felt her tug on his arm they were still attached by their fingers. She pulled him all the way to the lakeshore when she finally let go of his hand and lowered herself onto the bed of lush overgrown grass and he took a seat beside her.

She hugged her knees and lowered her gaze to her boots with a distant look.

He elbowed her which made her sway, “Listen you got what you wanted, I’m here, now what’s the problem?”

“I never said good-bye,” she let her hair fall down blocking his view. “To Granny. She had to do with an explanation from Belle and…and she deserved better. She’s all I got.” There was a long pause. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“I asked you,” he wore a sneer, propping his arm up with his knee.

She dropped her knees and crisscrossed them. Ever so slowly she looked up, her smile broad and warm as were her eyes. She wagged her finger at him, “You pretend not to give a damn about anything or anyone, but…” she tilted her head, the sun casting a shimmer on her chestnut hair and it took his breath away. “You’re not fooling me one bit.”

_Aw, shit,_ he thought, but the harder he tried he couldn’t look away, everything about her was captivating. The way she looked at him caused him to feel something he thought was long gone, that his heart had stopped working properly for some time. Now more than ever was he aware of the beating in his chest. _She’s it._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my OS "When You Know". Beta'd by a RP friend as well as bookwormchocoholic. I'm also on tumblr (http://www.onceuponanovel.tumblr.com) as well as pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/seannaacey/fan-fiction-capitol-offense-series/)


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